Mario Kart World has Over 200 Music Tracks, All 'Brand-New Arrangements'

Mario Kart World and the Nintendo Switch 2 are arriving on June 5. As gamers discuss the new features and complain about the $80 price, there’s another element that hasn’t been talked about much: the music. Mario games generally have stellar music, so people will be expecting the same from Mario Kart World. Now it appears that the latest entry in Nintendo’s classic racing franchise will have over 200 music tracks.

Mario Kart World’s Music

In an interview with the Mario Kart World development team, the music lead, Atsuko Asahi, discussed the challenges while creating music for the game.

First we created music for the courses like we’ve always done before and then thought about what to do for the roads outside the courses. We decided to have two different kinds of music depending on how you’re playing. For the Knockout Tour mode . . . as you get closer to the next course, the music transitions to the outro, so the theme ends nicely. We also created a new intro for each course theme which starts to play shortly before you reach the gate, building excitement.

Asahi explains in detail:

Then, as you actually pass through the gate, it changes to the theme of the course you’ve entered. By repeating this, it feels like a medley is playing along to you live, creating a sense of immersion . . . For other modes like Free Roam, we prepared lots of music in addition to course themes and made it so the game would automatically select the right track depending on the situation. During development, we called this the ‘jukebox.’ For this, we created lots of arrangements of music composed for past Super Mario and Mario Kart games.”

Asahi went on to say the “jukebox” had over 200 tracks, “all brand-new arrangements, and we also did live recordings. We prepared pieces from quite a wide variety of musical genres.”

The Main Theme

Mario Kart World‘s Direct features a cheery harmonica tune that captures the mood of driving out through an open area with no map or GPS. This is appropriate, given that the game will include a Free Roam mode where you can drive wherever you want. However, it would have been nice if the Direct had shown off some more of that “variety of musical genres” for those who don’t like harmonicas.

Conclusion

One of my favorite Mario Kart experiences is the first time I drove through the gorgeous Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 64. It was magical, and I think the music helped create that magic. If Mario Kart World‘s music creates that same magic, then the game will be worth playing just for that. Here’s hoping the game will have plenty of great tunes to hum while racing.